Video Shows Isolated Amazonian Tribe's First Contact With Outside World

Members of an isolated tribe have emerged from the Amazon rainforest and made contact with the outside world in a video released by Brazil’s indigenous authority.

The video shows indigenous people from the Panoan linguistic group carrying bows and wearing loin clothes making contact with the Ashaninka native people of northern Brazil along the banks of the Envira River, near the Peruvian border.

In one scene, an ethnic Ashaninka in athletic shorts gives bananas to two loincloth-clad natives who appear wary of approaching, quickly grabbing the fruit and then retreating out of arm’s reach.

Brazilian experts said the indigenous people likely crossed the border from Peru facing pressure from illegal logging and drug trafficking at home.

After the native people made initial contact with the Ashaninka on June 26, a team from Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) traveled to the area and filmed a second encounter on June 30, according to news portal G1.

The people, identified as members of a group known as the Rio Xinane, at first emerged only briefly and then returned to the forest, said FUNAI official Carlos Travassos.

“They were whistling and making animal sounds,” he said.

Two Panoan indigenous interpreters were then called in to speak with them on their next visit.

“They speak our language. I was so happy we could talk to each other,” said one of the interpreters, Jaminawa Jose Correia.